A high-end apartment that is currently rising in popularity.

Ding-dong

-15th floor. The door is opening.

As soon as the elevator doors opened, Shin Haesu spotted Ahn Seo-eun.

“Why are you outside?”

“Unlike you, Haesu, I don’t find it easy to look at corpses.”

Up until now, Haesu had perceived her as someone with a delicate exterior but a strong core, so he thought she would handle this just fine. However, when it came to matters like this, she was still an ordinary person.

As soon as they stepped inside, they saw Kang Min’s body sprawled out in the living room.

Haesu knelt on one knee to examine his wounds, then furrowed his brows.

“Who left the door open?”

“Ah, I did… The smell of blood was overwhelming…”

Seo-eun’s secretary, Chief Kang, responded.

“Leaving the door open lowers the indoor temperature, making it difficult to estimate the time of death.”

“Ah… I’m sorry!”

In a hurry, he followed Haesu and closed the windows.

The room looked like it had been ransacked, as if a simple robbery had taken place. Valuables also appeared to be missing.

The manager, after failing to reach Kang Min for several hours, came up to check and found him dead.

‘Two stab wounds to the neck, three to the side, two to the chest…’

Though it seemed like a frenzied attack, the execution was clean. Judging by the direction the blood had splattered, it appeared to have been done swiftly in one place, without the victim moving around. The likelihood of a professional was high.

Haesu checked the rectal temperature of the body.

‘31 degrees…’

In a typical indoor setting, body temperature drops by 0.8 degrees per hour. While environmental factors could vary the rate, considering that it was spring, at least four hours had passed. Even if he reset time, there was no saving him.

Haesu narrowed his eyes and picked up his phone.

“Chief, it’s me. Celebrity Kang Min has been murdered. I’m at the scene now.”

At Haesu’s call, the Violent Crimes Unit 1 and 2, along with the forensics team, arrived together.

Team 2, upon confirming Kang Min’s murder, grabbed their heads in frustration. A natural reaction. The victim had been someone they were investigating, and even if there was no direct cause, cases like this often ended up splashing mud on the police.

Haesu closely observed Team 2’s leader, who seemed particularly out of place.

Rather than being overwhelmed by the seriousness of losing a subject of their investigation, he seemed angry at someone.

‘Is it that he didn’t expect him to die…?’

“So the rumors were true, huh? That Daeseong and Detective Shin are close. Anyway, thanks for the heads-up. We’ll take it from here, so Team 1 can step back.”

As expected, Team 2 wanted to continue the investigation.

Team 1’s leader just stood there, silently watching Haesu.

At that moment, Ahn Seo-eun stepped forward.

“We want to entrust this case to Shin Haesu. Your team was investigating our guy, and now he’s dead, isn’t he?”

“…Excuse me?”

Team 2’s leader looked momentarily stunned before speaking again.

“It’s not like we pressured Kang Min into suicide; he was murdered. This isn’t something so simple, CEO. We’ve been investigating this case for a while now—”

Seo-eun cut him off and turned to Haesu.

“Is transferring the case possible?”

“It’s possible.”

At Haesu’s firm response, Team 1’s chief’s jaw dropped. His 25 years of experience as a detective told him there was something between these two.

“Hmm… Seongkwan, let’s talk for a second.”

“What the hell are you talking about? Talk about what?”

Team 1’s leader pulled Team 2’s leader aside for a serious conversation. Although Team 2 strongly resisted, the victim’s side was adamant, leaving them no choice but to transfer the case.

In the end, the decision was made. Team 1 remained at the scene, securing surveillance footage, CCTV, and black box recordings for analysis.

Back at the police station, Team 1 compiled the data from Team 2’s investigation along with the information Ahn Seo-eun had found, and Haesu gave a briefing.

“…Simply put, the reason Kang Min got involved in drugs was a woman named Shin, and she was introduced to him by Congressman Kim Sang-tae, right?”

“Yes.”

“But neither Kim Sang-tae nor Shin appear in the records. How do we know this?”

“Daeseong was conducting its own investigation.”

“I see… Daeseong…”

At that moment, Oh Kang-seok’s eyes gleamed sharply as he asked,

“Haesu, what’s your relationship with CEO Ahn Seo-eun? Don’t tell me… Are you secretly the son of a tycoon or politician, and she’s your fiancée or something?”

Haesu narrowed his eyes and looked at Kang-seok with an emotionless gaze. Kang-seok quickly averted his eyes and muttered,

“Sorry, sorry. Don’t look at me like that.”

The chief clapped his hands, wrapping up the discussion.

“Alright, let’s not get sidetracked. Anyway, from what we can see so far, there’s definitely something between Congressman Kim Sang-tae, Shin, and Kang Min. That aside, let’s focus on the analysis first. Drugs are drugs, and murder is murder.”

While it was ill-timed for a simple robbery case, the proper approach was to follow the chief’s advice: keep drugs and murder separate to prevent narrowing their perspective.

The immediate task was to analyze CCTV footage to identify suspects.

Swish—

Just then, Team 2’s chief was seen leaving. Haesu immediately stood up and followed.

“I’ll be back shortly.”

As Haesu rushed out of the office, the chief grumbled at the closed door.

“That kid is always running off somewhere on his own.”

The muscular rookie blushed and murmured under his breath.

“…He’s cool.”

“Cool, my ass.”

Kang-seok nudged the rookie’s shoulder with his elbow and asked,

“Hey rookie, what do they make art school graduates do in the army?”

“They make them draw lines for foot volleyball courts.”

“Right. How’s your eyesight?”

“It’s 2.0.”

“Then you analyze this much.”

“Understood!”

Kang-seok shoved half the files onto the rookie’s desk. The chief clicked his tongue.

“Damn, you didn’t do this to Dolgyeok, but now your old habits are back.”

“Who’s Dolgyeok? And Haesu… He’s scary.”

“With your muscles and face, you’re even scarier.”

“Come on, that’s not everything. Stop arguing and get to analyzing.”

“I'm doing it... ah, I really hate analysis. For an old man, it's torture.

Tap tap tap.

The team leader rubbed his eyes and lazily pressed the keyboard with fingers full of annoyance.

On the empty rooftop of the police station, the second team leader was holding his phone, fuming.

“…No, if you suddenly do this, what am I supposed to do?”

He almost slammed the phone onto the ground but stopped himself and spoke again.

“Yes, yes, of course, you wouldn’t know. Anyway, the Kang Min case has been transferred to Team 1 under Shin Haesu, so handle it however you want. It’s out of my hands now.”

He hung up the phone irritably. Just as he stepped inside through the rooftop door, a dark shadow lunged at him.

Bang! Crack—

He was spun sideways by sheer brute force and slammed hard against the wall. The impact knocked the wind out of him, and at the same time, a thick forearm pressed against his throat.

“K-Kuh, y-you… why…”

The pressure was so intense that he couldn’t even breathe, let alone speak.

Shin Haesu, the one who had ambushed him, drew close and spoke in a chilling tone.

“Was it Kim Sang-tae? Or the Chief?”

“Wh-What are you talking abou—ugh.”

Haesu pulled the phone from his grip and checked the number. It wasn’t saved in his contacts. Without hesitation, he dialed it back.

- “You bastard, are you going to keep calling this number? You trying to get yourself killed?”

It wasn’t the chief’s voice. That left only one answer.

Haesu ended the call and glared at the second team leader once more.

“If you don’t want to be charged with murder too, go downstairs, return the money, and turn yourself in. As a junior officer… this is my last request.”

They had once fought side by side in dangerous situations, and Haesu was giving him the chance to surrender with dignity.

The second team leader’s eyes turned hollow. As Haesu loosened his grip, he hung his head and answered weakly.

“…Got it.”

Haesu didn’t return his phone.

“I’ll be holding onto this for a while.”

The second team leader watched Haesu descend the stairs before he trudged down himself.

“Hey, Shin-Dol, what took you so long?”

“I was in the restroom.”

“Oh, poor Shin-Dol, you must’ve had a rough time if you were in there for 20 minutes.”

To take down a congressman, they needed a warrant. Haesu planned to gather physical evidence and make their move after the second team leader turned himself in.

Before long, the second team leader entered the office. His eyes met Haesu’s, then he suddenly fell to his knees in front of his team members.

“Guys… I’m sorry.”

The members of Team 2 rushed over in alarm to lift him up.

“What are you doing, sir?”

“Team Leader, please stand up!”

He stayed there for a moment, eyes red-rimmed, before going to his desk, retrieving something, and walking toward the leader of Team 1.

“My eldest… he’s going to college this year. But because of money, he was thinking about giving up on his dream school. So… I lost my mind for a moment. I was insane.”

“W-What the hell are you saying? No way, right?”

The team leader instinctively felt an ominous dread, but the second team leader placed an ATM card in front of him.

“There’s a large sum of money in the linked account. Three thousand. I got it from Kim Sang-tae. I haven’t touched it yet…”

The team leader’s pupils trembled as if shaken by an earthquake. The second team leader continued in a detached tone.

“The condition was to make sure Kim Sang-tae and Shin Ira’s names… never came up in Kang Min’s drug case.”

The team leader shot up like a bullet and grabbed him by the collar.

“Hey, you son of a bitch!! A cop, doing this?! A fucking cop?!”

Both Team 1 and Team 2 members rushed to break them apart. Their eyes, having heard everything, were filled with bitter disappointment.

Team 1’s leader had worked with the second team leader for so long that they felt like family. That made this all the more enraging and painful.

Public authority… was far too weak to uphold righteousness.

Haesu gripped the furious team leader’s shoulder tightly.

“Don’t touch me—ah, ah, AH! That hurts, dammit!”

Their eyes met forcefully. Haesu spoke with a voice filled with fury.

“Let’s go catch the bastard who tried to buy out the police with money.”

At his words, Oh Kang-seok and the rookie shot to their feet simultaneously, their eyes blazing with fighting spirit.

Taewon-dong, Gangjin City. Goldrich Building, top floor.

Tap tap tap tap—

The sound of dress shoes echoed hurriedly. Six sturdy men in black suits were escorting a middle-aged man as they moved quickly.

The man, Kim Sang-tae, was on the phone as he stepped into an already open elevator.

“No, you idiot, I told you I didn’t do it! Anyway, just hide for now, and don’t blame me. What? If that gets out, we’re both dead—”

He suddenly realized there was no response from the other end and looked up.

The elevator doors were firmly shut, and it was descending.

“Damn it, does reception still cut off in elevators these days? Unbelievable.”

“Should I stop it?”

“Stop it for what, you dumbass? Time is crucial right now, you moron.”

“Apologies, sir.”

“Ding-dong.”

- “First floor.”

The elevator doors opened. They were on their way to the underground parking lot, but someone was standing at the first floor.

“Excuse me.”

A man with sharp features, just as intimidating as his bodyguards, squeezed his way inside.

Since it was just one person, Kim Sang-tae relaxed slightly and sighed.

Then he noticed—the man was staring directly at him.

More than that, he took out his phone, held it up beside Kim Sang-tae’s face, and compared it to a picture.

“W-What the hell do you want?”

The man, Shin Haesu, met his gaze with dry, cold eyes and finally spoke.

“Nice to meet you. You piece of shit.”